Jump to content

The Holy Grail of Soap Collecting


Recommended Posts

  • Members

I did a quick search in UCLA's TV & Film archive. They have five episodes of All My Children from 1971 (March 8, 16, & 24 and April 1 & 9) along with five episodes from 1973 (March 12, 20, & 28 & April 5 & 13). The 1973 episodes align perfectly with Erica's abortion as Roe v. Wade was decided on January 22, 1973, and with a six week lag time, Agnes would've had that storyline on the air no later than April 1973. The UCLA episodes - like their Where the Heart Is episodes (which also contain Search for Tomorrow) - aren't playable because UCLA doesn't have the right equipment. Maybe we should take up a collection drive. **sigh**

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 38
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

The American Heritage center in Laramie, Wyoming has the Frank & Doris Hursley Papers in their collection, that contains scripts, outlines and other documents relating to the Hursley’s work.

 

I contacted their staff and they generously sent me scans of the original GH story outline, the story projections for the show’s first six months, and correspondence between ABC New York and Doris Hursley.

 

They also have the Bridget & Jerome Dobson papers.  Their research room is open to the public, and you can go through the boxes. I have plans to go to the west coast next summer, and am trying to fit in a trip to Laramie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It’s wonderful that they sent you scans of that documentation! I had to take photos of the stuff in Irna’s archive. The Bell archive makes you write everything by hand and the same with Agnes’ archive. 

One of the head writers of Search for Tomorrow has an archive just north of LA with years of documentation and scripts (the 60s, I believe). I hope to visit that one soon. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I agree, but it's a copyright issue. ABC/Disney owns all of the intellectual property for AMC & OLTL (which they acquired in 1975); Sony (for all intents and purposes) owns it for Y&R (Sony owns approximately 75% of the show with the Bells at 24% and Corday Productions at 1%). Without their consent, the archives can't allow people to make photocopies of the outlines, scripts, etc. It's a hassle, but they can only allow what the rights holders allow.

That being said, the P&G soaps are a different beast. Most of their scripts, outlines, broadcast episodes before 1970 were never copyrighted by P&G and have fallen into the public domain. Since soap writers are work for hire, their ownership immediately passes to P&G, but if P&G let the initial copyright lapse and never filed the correct extension (I believe they would've had to do so in the 70s), those scripts, outlines, etc. are fair game for copying, photographing, and distributing. 

The UCLA archive holds about 5 episodes of ATWT from 1973. This storyline may very well be on one of those tapes which UCLA isn't able to play on their equipment. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

It's so weird how "precious" some of these soap production companies are with with their scripts when I have a library full of Academy Award winning scripts on my flashdrive.  When I was in grad school, I was able to easily get copies of scripts and Sherwood outlines for primetime shows from The Dick Van Dyke show, to I Love Lucy to Frasier and Scrubs

What exactly do these soap producers think we're going to do with a script of an episode of The Young and the Restless from 1977?

I can go get a copy of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night from French's bookstore or the complete works of William Shakespeare.  What makes soaps so special?

 

I swear, the daytime drama genre is just pushing their history toward complete and utter obsolescence.  There are but a few of us who still care about this genre and the industry is discouraging most of us to continue to care.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I agree with you 100%! 

Some movie studios have even begun selling their least popular movies through DVD on demand. Yeah, not everyone may care about that film, but the people who do can buy a legitimate copy that’s printed on demand on a DVD and the studio pulls in a few bucks. Easy. Simple. Why ABC and Sony can’t do the same is beyond me. Oh, wait...it’s because they don’t want to do it and they don’t care. Now if it were The Revolution or The Chew...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I just saw a notice that the new One Day At A Time have sent all their scripts to be housed in the library of the WGA, which makes so much more sense.  You have to be onsite to access the scripts.  I wonder why more programs don't send their scripts to WGA for safekeeping. 

 

I always register mine at the East Coast division and when I was a grad student, I had an associate membership for only $17 a year.

 

It would be so much easier if the soaps had done this option, at least since the  early 1980s.  The soaps on the East Coast could've easily gone a couple of blocks and delivered one copy of the scripts once a week.  I mean the WGA has been around since the 1950s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

My personal Holy Grail would be the first soap story I ever remember seeing as a kid. It was The Edge Of Night, and it was the story that introduced the character of Nicole Travis. There was a crazy lady named Stephanie Martin, who pissed off EVERYBODY in Monticello, and , of course, was murdered. Nicole was arrested, but since the whole town wanted her dead, every character seemed to have their moment on the witness stand. Adam Drake represented Nicole, setting the stage for their romance. The day they revealed the killer, it was like "Who Shot J.R." for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Great pairing that seemed to come out of the blue! Around that time, it felt like Sheffer/Goutman didn’t really know what to do with Emily or Hal. And KM and BH had surprisingly great chemistry. It was good for Emily especially because she was coming off those unsympathetic years with the Tom affair and then running the Intruder and essentially just being a busybody.
    • I think the issue with Lulu is less the character (which was the issue in the Julie Berman days under Guza II) and more the lack of nuance. The current GH team rarely writes nuance for any character or at least can't sustain it for long, or they reserve it for a favored few. I also think the rooting interest at GH BTS often remains on preferred characters or actors - BLQ/Setton - vs. Laura's kids. So it's easy to make Lulu the heavy if you think Brook Lynn and Chase are the money on this show. I don't, but I think FV does. And that's not to say I think Amanda Setton is bad in the role, or that I would get rid of BLQ. I don't trend towards either (though I do think that if Setton's personal beliefs keep getting in the way of material I would reluctantly recast). I think Brook Lynn is essential to use as a lead presently. But I don't think it needs to be the black and white dichotomy of suffering young matriarch BLQ and aggressor Lulu. While it's good that unlike in the Guza years they can recognize that Lulu can be obnoxious and rash, can be her own worst enemy and that that is part of the character, it can be toned down or given more layers than it has of late. There's nothing wrong there the writing can't fix.
    • 1999: I just watched it. It felt so primetime. La Lucci is making history. Aretha's daydreaming segment. @Contessa Donatella Thank you, my love. So helpful and informative as always. adding them to my queue.
    • I know this isn’t a usual or anywhere near universal take, but I loved the relatively brief Hal/Emily relationship/marriage more than I ever thought I would have with KMH/BH.
    • In my field (not that) I've written my share of dreck when it's what people wanted vs. something good. In the end what matters is the check. These pilots may not be great, but whether or not those writers intended otherwise they got paid.
    • I think there is plenty to critique and/or roast about the show, but I think there's also good bones and a lot of progressive improvement. It's the Bell/B&B formula and house style that is hardest for it to shake and the most necessary IMO, as well as some dead weight actors or characters, but that formula also apparently works for a lot of general viewers and I suspect CBS. OTOH it's also very modern in certain ways (sometimes overly hip dialogue, and some story) that still make it feel like a show that's bouncing between distant past staples of soap opera fundamentals and the present moment. And the old fashioned product placement is fun but also so goofy, while material like June is hysterical. Imagine leading with 'the underpass is where I live, and I like it there!' It's an unusual show in that way, because its identity and tone is still not fully formed. You don't know what it'll be. But that's normal at this juncture. The closest thing to a glimpse of the future foundation, I think (besides the obvious core family setup that's been there since Day 1), is the rivalry and future familial bond - and likely love/hate relationship - between Kat and Eva. A la many central sisters or siblings throughout soap history.
    • I loved Kelley Menighan! She was an MVP, especially during the show’s last few years. I always looked forward to anything she did with MM, BH, CZ, MW,  and the two grownup Alisons. Wasn’t a big fan of her with RH’s Paul. I always admired how she balanced being a vixen and being neurotic.
    • LLC can be a lot (lady definitely doesn’t phone it in), but her scenes with Rena made me wish they played actual sisters on a better platform.  Aside from JE, who is a legend so it’s no surprise when she’s excellent, Amanda Setton is my MVP of this story and she hasn’t always been great in this role. You see so much happening in her face as she’s navigating the shifts and layers of this story. She’s fully locked in. Glad Rory Gibson is getting his due on GH. I knew he had more to give than what Y&R was giving him. The writing will be a factor here as well because the character of Michael hasn’t been written well in ages (if ever, arguably). GH just can’t sustain the good stuff for more than a few weeks. Alexa Havins is a very good actress and was widely embraced as Lulu initially, but the character’s one-note abrasiveness has a lot of folks wishing she was gone at this point. 
    • It's pilots like "Hurricane Sam" and "Anything for Love" that makes me so afraid to write professionally, because, my God, what if I actually tried and came up with something just as awful, if not worse (if that's even possible)?
    • JANUARY 1974 SPECIALS ADDED... Here are the January 1974 specials which have been added to the yearly list on page 76:

      Please register in order to view this content

       
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy